Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

23

"Thomas Knyvet was a stern, hard man. No one would guess the sordid heat that drove him to the worst proclivities. But it was his marriage that finally pushed him over the edge of reason. His wife, Elizabeth, was a widow, wealthy in her own right. It was at that woman's urging that Knyvet gave in to his base appetites. Of course, none of them knew at the time what she was. Not even Knyvet. We all found out soon enough."

Even with that ominous beginning, I still would never have expected the horror that was to come.

The Knyvet's were monsters even before they were both vampires. The woman, Elizabeth, had been a vampire at the time of their marriage. It might seem strange that Knyvet wouldn't know that there was something different about her, but it was a marriage of convenience not of love. There was no reason for the pair to be intimate. It would be extremely unlikely that they would. Their tastes lay elsewhere.

Knyvet House was in Central London then, the very site where the Prime Minister now resides, number ten Downing Street. It was a large and bustling house, and it was the house that dozens of teenage boys entered into service, never to be seen again.

There had been rumours before his marriage. A wealthy bachelor at fifty-five, many eligible ladies at court had tried to entice him into marriage and failed. It was said that he visited brothels that housed male prostitutes, but of course that was just hearsay.

When he married the rumours all dried up. There was no need to visit brothels when there were so many youths in London with no connections, ripe for the picking.

And Elizabeth was skilled at picking out the ones that no one would look for. She'd had enough practice.

Knyvet was a powerful man. He had a respectable household. And when he apprehended Guy Fawkes, in the basement of the Houses of Parliament on November the fifth in the year sixteen hundred and five, he became untouchable. After that event nobody would dare to challenge him even if they knew the depths of his depravity.

This was how James introduced the man that had made him into a vampire. It didn't take a genius to understand the horrific direction that this history might go. James had been fifteen when he was convicted of witchcraft and hung. It was straight after that Knyvet turned him.

But before he got to the events of sixteen twelve, there was a longer relationship to unwind. One that was closer to my own heart.

"Knyvet was known as a great benefactor of youth. He promoted education for young boys, and when it was time to stage his 'human' death, he even left an endowment to start a free school in his name. Of course that was a front. It made it easier to hide their activities."

James scrunched his face up with distaste. There was something else. He tried to hide it, but I could sense his fear. It reached me through his power, slithering over my skin, leaving a cold and unpleasantly clammy sensation in its wake.

Was that how James was able to read my thoughts so accurately? We were related. He said our power was derived from the same source. I looked at him. Our faces were so close that I could sense the air move when he blinked.

His brows drew together in displeasure. James did not want to be read by me, his secrets open to interpretation, his fear visible. That was tough shit. I would use any skills at my disposal to negotiate this strange new world: the real world. I would need to, or my ignorance would more than likely get me killed.

"One of the ways that Knyvet demonstrated his generosity," James paused to snort his empty mirth, "was to open his home to the children of impoverished clergy, and provide an apprenticeship of sorts. For his favourites, he would employ a tutor and fit them for a legal career, usually as a Clerk of Assize, which was a sound living for such a pedestrian class of man. Those who did not attract Knyvet's favour, well, I'll explain about them later, when we get to my part in the history. One boy that excelled above all others in pleasing Knyvet was our young Tommy."

"Thomas?"

Nausea bubbled in the pit of my belly. James's insinuations about Knyvet and his wife's depravities had taken the story to a dark place. Surely I would know if Thomas had been wound up in all that, if he'd been abused as a child.

"It's not what you're thinking," James said. "Well, not quite. Tommy did enter Knyvet House as a youth of twelve, an orphan from a clergy family. But there was something about that boy that elevated him above the others, and kept him safe from both Knyvet and his wife."

James's eyes glazed over, as he watched history play out in his memories. "His beauty even then was exceptional, and they doted on him. He was their pet. Mind you, I don't think they ever intended to keep him safe, they were grooming him, waiting until he reached his prime."

Something cold and biting crept along my skin from James's dense aura of power. I shuddered, steeling myself against the powerful vampire's dark emotions.

"After taking up his intended role as an Assize Clerk, Tommy's career went from strength to strength. His beauty, and the advantage of a wealthy patron, made his progress through the ranks of court administration easy. Easy, that is, until he arrived in Lancashire in the summer of sixteen twelve, and found Alice Gray in Lancaster Gaol."

Will Alice's feelings change after learning this dark history?
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